David Blaine

by: Caroline Westbrook - Last
updated: 2003-10-19

Magical David Blaine

In the last decade magician David Blaine has gone from urban street performer to international superstar with his fresh approach to magic. Like his idol Harry Houdini, David is also Jewish, something SJ has always known. And now we can reveal why we always knew David was a member of the tribe.

The son of a Jewish mother and Puerto Rican father, Blaine (not his real surname but actually his middle name) was born in 1973 in New York.

When he was 10, his mother married banker John Bukalo and moved to New Jersey, where Davids half-brother Michael was born. Sadly for David, his mother Patrice White died of ovarian cancer at the age of 48, when Blaine was 19.

After becoming hugely famous for his street magic, Blaine was a requested performer for celebrities, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. His latest stunt sees him spending 44 days without food in a box at Tower Bridge.

Six Things That Tell Us Why David Blaine Is Jewish

1 He fasted on Yom Kippur. Of course, he fasted for the previous 30 days and the following 13 after the festival, but its the thought that counts.

2 Like many Jewish males, Blaine seems to enjoy spending time on his own, except this time he his spending his time several hundred feet in the air.

3 He is getting abuse from people, and having things thrown at him as well as being shouted at on a regular basis  of course Jews are used to such persecution.

4 He enjoys connecting with his Jewish roots, so much so that during Rosh Hashanah he is said to have appreciated the blowing of the Shofar below him. A Lubavitch rabbi, Hershel Gorman, went to the Tower Bridge site the day before the festival started and blew the Shofar, so Blaine could benefit from the Mitzvah of hearing it. He is said to have stood up and waved upon hearing the Shofar.

5 At home, he keeps dozens of copies of Primo Levis Survival In Auschwitz, as well as a giant poster of Jewish escapologist Houdini.

6 His first name is David, a good Jewish name as endorsed by other famous Jews called David. These include King David, rock star David Lee Roth, fellow magician David Copperfield, and of course Britains very own Dave Gorman.